Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/59

Rh wondered how it happened that her eyes closed ere she was aware of it.

In the afternoon she usually took the children to the mill, and that half day seemed to them a great holiday. The miller had a daughter of the same age as Barunka; her name was Mary, but she was always called Manchinka. She was a good, playful child.

In front of the mill, between two lindens, was a statue of St. John of Nepomuk, and there the miller's wife, Manchinka, and the ZernoŽernov [sic] women usually sat on Sunday afternoon. The miller generally stood before them, telling them some news while he turned his snuff box in his fingers. As soon as Grandmother and the children were seen coming, Manchinka ran to meet them, and the miller slowly followed with the women. The miller's wife, however, turned to the house to get something ready for those dear little ones, "so that they will behave," as she said. Before they reached the house, a table was already prepared for them either under the windows in the orchard or on the little island. They had a generous supply of buns and honey, bread and butter, and cream. In the summer the miller generally brought a basket of fruit, but in the winter they had dried apples and prunes. Coffee and similar beverages were not yet in common use; in the whole neighborhood only the Prosheks drank coffee.

"How good of you to come to see us," said the miller's wife, offering a chair to Grandmother. "Why, if you did not come it would not seem like Sunday; and now accept of the bounty that God has given."